Looper for rolling mills



C. L. TURLEY LOOPER FOR ROLLING MILLS F d pril 27 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 E F mmmwwwm.

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5x41 i i C. L. TURLEY LOOPER FOR ROLLING MILLS Filed April 27 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 HH EF 45 and brought to welding condition and tem- Patented ec. 2, lZd.

CHARLES 1'... runner, or WOODILAWN, PENNSYLVANIA:

Loornn son ROLLING mints.

Application filed April 27, 1923. Serial No. 834,977.

To all it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES L TURLEY,

residing at Woodlawn, in the county of Beaver and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and-useful Improvements in Loopersfor Rolling Mills, of which improvements the following is a specifi' bodying my invention, as I practice it in connection with and as part of a steel mill.

Fig. U is a view of the same apparatus, seen in side elevation but with the intermediate portion of the trough removed. Figs. 1H and IV are views to larger scale. showing the looper itself in vertical and.

transverse section, and its carrying aid op-- erating arts in end elevation. These two figures i ustrate the swinging feature which is of the essence of the looper of my invention; Fig. III shows the parts in position for-conveying the advancing material from rollass to roll-pass. Fig. I shows the parts in t e position they assume after an advancing length of material has been fed from roll-pass to roll-pass, a position allowing t c release of the. loop, that is to say the reach of travelling material which spans the ga between roll-pass and roll-pass.

w n the rolling of skelIp for pipe an initial bar, say 30 feet long s give dimensions by way of example more y, not at all by way of limitation) is in a suitable furnace heated perature. It then is rolled in continuous operation, and as it emer es from the last roll-pass it is sheared. romthe initial 30-foot blank, 26 lengths of skelp may so be produced, each skelp length measuring 20 to 22 feet long.

As mills are commonly built and operated.

the multiplicity of roll-passes are'commonl grouped into units, termed rougliin mill and finishing mill, and there may further unit grouping, as in the provision of an intermediate mill.

In mills for continuous rolling, the relative speed between succeeding passes within the unit is susceptible to predetermination and adjustment, that the elongation of the material is without difficulty taken care of. But, as between the succeeding units, this matter of relative speed is not so easily dealt with, 'andin practice it is generally necessary so. to speed the rolls-that as rolling progresses the reach of material between the ultimate roll pass of an earlier unit and the initial passof a later unit shall lengthen, that is to say develop into a loop.

he looper is the. conveyor, which,

placed between the last pass of an earlier unit and the first pass of a later unit, carries the material from pass to pass, and, having done so," ermits the "development of and provides or the safe and proper dis osal of the loop, and for the tail end 0 the length of'the piece of material, when at last it emerges fromthe ultimate pass of the earlier unit.

'The looper commonly'employed in strip mills is essentially a trough, extending. be-

tween the roll passes, inwhi'ch trough the advancing material is initially carried from pass: to pass. It is. pivoted adjacent its posterior end (that is to say, adjacent the ultimate pass ofthe earlier mill unit),.on a

transverse axis, to swing vertically a plane of'swing coincident with the-line of direction of advance of thematerial being rol1ed. Initially, as mills ordinarily are built, it extends horizontally. When it has served its essentialduty as a conveyor it swings downward, allowing the developing loop to sag mto a pit provided beneath, to allow the free -descent both of looper and of the developing loop.

' It will be remarked of suchfa looperand the observations will gain point after considering what is here to follow-tliat,

necessarily long, its'outer end swings on a.

long radius; that after'it has served as a conveyor and receded, the developing loop drags over its surface; and that it cannot be elevated again until after the end of the.

piece of materialunder treatment has advaneed beyond its range of swing. Turning now to the drawings, the utlimate p of a roughing mill (a pm of edging rollslis indicated at 1, the initial pass ofa fin ingmill at 2. Between these the looper is arranged. The direction in which material under treatment advances is indicated by the arrow a.

Intermediate between the roughing and finishing mills extends the looper. It is, as' has been intimated, essential y a trough,

serving to convey the forward end of an .ad-

vancing length of material as it advances from roll passl and deliver it to roll pass 2.

A medial section of this trough is mounted to swing from one to the. other of two alternate positions: the one shown inFigs. I and III, the other in Fig. IV. In the position shown in Figs. I and III thetrough is continuous, and serves its primary function as conveyor and guide; in the position shown in Fig. IV the medial trough section is swung aside, leaving a gap, in which gap the loop may develop.

The movable trough section is preferably no more than a section of the whole length of the trough structure, and, as will be seen in Figs. III and IV, the section which is movable referably includes no more than the trough bottom and one side, the other side wall being stationary. The axis of swing is not as in earlier structures transverse of the line of adv'ance'of the material but is parallel to that line, the direction of swin is not in line of the travel of the ma ,teria but transverse thereto.

Specificall the trough 3 has a movable section 4. 'Ihis section 4 doesnot extend the whole length of the trough but is an intermediate section; it includes onl bottom and one side wall; the op osite side, wall,

to which the numeral 3 is immediately applied, is continuous throughout the length of the trough. The movable section is pivoted on an axis which extends along one sideof and closely adjacent to the trough.

Compared with the. usual pivoted-trough looper, it will be observed of this, it swings .in an arc of short radius, and therefore retrough section is a the beam 18 linked to a or 1- -arm 8 quires a relatively small amount of power to swing it; and it swings wholly out of the way of the loop, so that while open it is not rubbed u on by the advancing material, but the loop angs free in the pit. (To the pit in Fig. II the reference numeral 5 is applied.)

The movable trough section is carried on a swingin beam 13, and the beam 13 is counterwelghted, as indicated at 6, and the weight is such as to hold the trough section normally to the closed position shown in Fig. III. even when sustaining the weight of an advancing length of material. The

i to thefopen, material-releasing position indicated in Fig. IV by energizing of an electro-magnet 7. To the armature of the magnet a beam 12 is linked. The, beam is fulcrumed in a sta tionary support. The otherwise free arm of by the shaft 9. This shaft 9 is the fulcrum of the counterweighted beam 13, which beam,

as has been said, carries the trough section 4. When the electro-magnet is de-energized.

the trough section swings by gravity to th closed position shown inFig. III. I

The floor of the closed trough is not continuous, but there is a ga b, between the forward end of the movabe trough section 4 and the adjacent stationary'portion of the trough, nearer to roll-pass 2. Furthermore...

width of the trough is adjustable by varying the position of the channel bars 11 whose webs face the trough within.

..As shown in the drawings these channel bars 11 are riveted to their supporting beams, and the adjustment alluded to is in this instance determined at the time of fabrication, by the particular placing of the rivet holes. It is manifest, however, that in this matter of the mounting of and of the relative positioning of the bars 11, the engineer may freely use his professional knowledge. Ordinarily in this art rigidity under service conditions is a matter of first importance.

The operation will readily be understood. When the forward end of a length of material is advancing from roughing mill to finishing mill the looper is in the position shown in Figs. I and III; the trough is closed. The material accordingly runs forward through the trough and its forward travelling material lengthens, the loop sinks gradually and freely into it 5. It hangs as indicated by the dotted line 0, Fig. II.

The fact will be perceived that when the loop a has so sunk in the pit, the movable trough section may by de-energizing the magnet be swung to closed position again.

As compared with the plvoted trough of the prior art, sufiiciently described above, the trough of my inventign, being counterweighted, and swinging on a short radius (18 inches, as compared with 6 feet), may be much more easily and more rapidly swung, and with less expenditure of power. It swingsentirely out of the way, the loop of material hangs free in the pit. The wear of the strip dragging in the trough is re-,

while a substantial part of the piece already conveyed remains still on the intake side of roll pass 2. This can be done without danger from accidental catching of material between moving parts. The next succeeding piece of material may then be fed at a closer lnterral after its predecessor. This makes for increase in production.

Manifestly the looper is applicable not to skelp mills only, not merely to strip mills, but is of general applicability in rolling elongate material.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a looper for rolling mills and in combination with two roll-stands placed at an interval apart, a laterally swinging trough adapted alternately to support a length of material advancing between the roll stands and to allow such length ofmaterial engaged by the rolls of such stands to hang free therefrom.

2. In a looper for rolling mills and in combination with two roll-stands placed at an interval apart, a'two-part trough opening and closin in a direction transverse to the path of advance of material from one to theother of the said roll-stands, and adapted alternately to support material in its advance from one roll-stand to the other, and to allow a length of material when engaged by the rolls of the said roll-stands to descend and hang free from roll-stand to roll-stand, between the separated parts of the opened trough.

3. In a looper for a rolling mill a trough with a gap in its bottom extending above a loop-receiving space, the section of the trough adjacent the gap to rearward being pivoted for lateral swing, the section forward of the ap being curved in upwardly and rearwar ly convex curvature.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

CHARLES L. TURLEY.

Witnesses:

ALBERT Lnwls, Bnnrrm E. Soo'rr. 

